Serious illness and mortality among care home residents due to coronavirus is dramatically reduced thanks to the effect of Covid vaccines - by more than 95% in the case of those who have had two vaccine doses. This is revealed by a new collaborative study between the Catalan health department, the Catalan Institute of Health (ICS), and Oxford University's Centre for Statistics in Medicine. These conclusion were reached from statistical analysis of data on about 30,000 Catalan nursing home residents, a group who, due to their advanced age, are especially vulnerable to the effects of coronavirus.
Although senior citizens, and especially those resident in nursing homes, were the main victims of the first wave of the pandemic, they have until now been underrepresented in clinical trials carried out in recent months on the virus and the effectiveness of vaccines. The study thus confirms that vaccines are as effective on care home residents as was hoped for in the initial clinical trials of the vaccines, when effectiveness figures of over 90% were published by some vaccine producers.
Care home workers also studied
The massive reductions observed by the study in infections, hospitalizations and mortaility among the care home residents was also paralleled in other Catalan population groups that the study has analyzed. Specifically, some 26,000 geriatric home staff and more than 60,000 health workers were followed as part of the study. Overall among the three groups, those had received both doses of a vaccine treatment registered 80-91% decreases in Covid infections.
The results have been welcomed by Catalan secretary of public health Carmen Cabezas, who says that they "confirm the great value of vaccination programmes to reduce Covid-19 transmission, mortality and stress on the health system". In this regard, she added that "our strategy of starting with the vaccination of those at higher risk has proven valuable in reducing the impact of Covid-19 on those most likely to suffer severely from the disease."
As well, the results observed in healthcare staff show that "our plan to prioritize those most exposed to the virus, including our healthcare workers, has also proven useful in keeping patients and professionals safe while caring for us," she said.
"Very good effectiveness"
Dr Daniel Prieto-Alhambra, a pharmacoepidemiology expert at Oxford University who worked with the Catalan health service in conducting the study, has explained that “we are collaborating internationally to produce solid evidence on the risk-benefit of vaccines against Covid". In this case, he says, the results "demonstrate very good effectiveness in all the populations studied, in line with previous clinical trials."
Compulsory jabs for care home workers?
Covid re-entered Catalan care homes in July, as the Delta variant-led fifth wave of the pandemic hit the country. Now, it has gone into decline again, allowing the health authorities to relax protocols to contain infections, and care home users will now be able to take short trips away from the residences of up to three days. The new outbreak in geriatric centres has alerted the health community across the Spanish state, and some autonomous communities have proposed that vaccination be made mandatory for all care home workers.
At the moment, this position is not supported by the Catalan government. Catalan social rights minister Violant Cervera has told the media that they cannot oblige any population group to be vaccinated, while health minister Argimon has spoken out in favour of persuasion rather than compulsion to vaccinate these workers.
Main photo: A nurse prepares a vaccine at the La Farga site, L'Hospitalet / Montse Giralt